Gravity

The Torah is like gravity. It keeps us grounded.

Gravity, the new movie starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is literally out of this world.

Watching this movie makes you feel like you’re floating around in space with them.

The movie takes place in space, and follows Sandra Bullock’s character, whose name, Ryan Stone, sounds like a male action hero from the ‘80s, and George Clooney’s character, who is on his last spacewalk before retirement. If movies have taught us anything, it’s that if the guy next to you says it’s his last day before retirement, you should probably just back away. It’s not rocket science.

From the very beginning, the movie is immersive, especially if you see it in 3D and IMAX. It feels like you’re floating around in space with them, except that your feet are stuck to the movie theater floor and you’re sharing at least one armrest with someone you don’t know. It’s also chock full of lessons and metaphors, the very first one being a scary lesson about the consequences of littering. Even in space. You’d think there’d be plenty of, um, space, but it turns out that roughly everything that happens up there takes place in the same basic neighborhood.

But the movie definitely made me appreciate what I have. The stranger sitting next to me gripping the armrest, I guess. And the goo on the floor.

At the beginning of the movie, we find out that the Russians have been blowing up their old spy satellites. But the pieces are hitting other satellites and knocking them out of orbit, and everything’s hurtling around earth at a million miles per hour. And all of a sudden, all that stuff hits the fan, and pretty much cuts it to ribbons. And before Dr. Stone can comprehend the gravity of the situation, she gets flung into space with nothing but a one-size-fits-all spacesuit, a dwindling supply of oxygen, and memories of her late daughter.

It’s interesting that, for a movie called Gravity, there’s almost no gravity. I don’t know why I noticed. Almost every other movie I’ve ever seen has gravity, and I’ve never noticed that. But we tend to notice things more when they’re not there. And in this movie, there’s no gravity. She’s in space, and floating out further and further. That’s the problem.

It turns out that gravity is like oxygen. It’s one of those simple things that we have in abundance that we don’t appreciate until it gets taken away. We all understand how scary it is to not be able to breathe, because we’ve all experienced it. I can’t be the only one who, when he’s watching a movie and a character is about to go under water for a significant amount of time, holds his own breath along with the character to see if he could make it.

I’ve never made it.

But we never really think about that when it comes to gravity. Whenever we think about going into space, the lack of gravity seems to be the best part. We see footage of astronauts floating around and tossing clipboards to each other and falling asleep with their arms floating over their heads. We all want to be astronauts when we grow up, for just that reason. But what we don’t realize is that zero gravity can also be a pain. Down here, we know that if we drop something – a screw, for example – it will go basically in one direction. Down. And it will be relatively easy to get it. We just have to move whatever piece of furniture it rolled under. But imagine if it could go in any direction, you can’t hear where it lands, and if it’s gone, you have to go back down to earth to get another one.

Gravity is predictable and reliable. If a piano falls on you, that’s it. It only falls on you once. Whereas in space, the piano will circle the earth and hit you again. And again.

In space, nothing moves like you expect it to. If you try to grab something, you might just float on past it. And it’s not easy to grab things either, because you’re basically wearing a thick pair of snow pants all over your body. And if you bump into something and don’t grab it right away, you ricochet off in the other direction. If you use a fire extinguisher, the reverb sends you smashing back into a wall.

Not only that, but a lack of gravity is also disorienting, especially in 3D. It turns out that in space, you’re almost always upside down relative to something. I myself won’t even go on an upside-down roller coaster. I’m always afraid of things falling out of my pockets. If I went up into space, I’d be constantly feeling around for my phone, my change, my pens, “Hey, can you float me that pen? I seem to have misplaced mine.” At some point, Stone is floating out there alone, flipping head over heels over head over heels, and you see things from her point of view – earth, stars, debris, earth, stars, debris. And you don’t stop spinning. And all you hear is Sandra Bullock gasping for air. It’s very claustrophobic to be the second person in a spacesuit.

And that’s literally all you hear. Early in the movie, Dr. Stone is asked what her favorite thing is about space. “The silence,” she answers.

But when certain parts of the movie happen in absolute silence, it’s very disconcerting. When something explodes or collides in the movie, your first thought is, “Where’s the noise?” My guess is that anyone watching this movie on DVD will be constantly checking the volume controls to make sure they’re working properly.

I found myself missing the noise. It was scary. As any parent knows, even if the noises your kids are making are annoying, it’s when you no longer hear noise that it’s time to get up and check on them. The second it’s gone, you miss it. And as the movie demonstrates, all you hear is the sound of your own breathing. And warning alarms telling you things you already know.

All these things that we take for granted – oxygen, gravity, basic orientation, noise, our kids – we don’t appreciate them until we don’t have them.

We don’t always appreciate gravity, for example, especially as we age, but gravity itself is not restrictive. We think it is, because it pulls us in one specific direction, but that’s because we’ve never experienced it any other way. We’ve never been in a situation where we’ve missed it. It’s not better to be pulled in EVERY direction, is it? One direction is way less stressful.

The Torah keeps us tethered.

We might think it’s a pain to keep God’s commandments, for example, and that they’re restrictive, and we look out at the world and see everyone else floating around and having a good time and throwing clipboards at each other, but really the commandments are about as restrictive as gravity. And gravity is not that restrictive. We can still go on airplanes and hot air balloons and trampolines, but we keep coming back to earth. Is that restrictive? It keeps us tethered. It keeps us from floating out into space. There’s no telling where we’d end up without it.

And when we didn’t have it, we did miss it. Before we were a nation, God brought us to Egypt to show us what restrictive really means. Restrictive is being forced to build pyramids on quicksand. (Gravity can be a harsh mistress.) We don’t appreciate anything until we’ve seen the alternative. We want to know our options.

Maybe this is why God puts us in difficult situations; so we’ll appreciate the good times. If every day was Shabbos, we wouldn’t appreciate Shabbos.

Want to get away from gravity for a while, and have a cool but terrifying experience that will help you decide to ditch your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut? Go see Gravity. Though if you’re going to see it in 3D, bring a fire extinguisher.

I was born with a neuromuscular disease known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and have been confined to a wheelchair my entire life. Unfortunately my sister and I were raised without any religious instruction or guidance. My father wasn't Jewish and although my mother is, she openly claims to be an atheist. The "good news" is that both my sister and myself - independent of each other and at different times in our lives - realized that we are Jewish and chose to live a Jewish life.

Because of my disability, I'm not always able to attend services on Shabbat, but I always light candles, pray from a Siddur and read the weekly Torah portion. I would like to know whether, considering my situation, if using a computer is allowed during the Sabbath? I found the complete Bible online and since my computer is voice-activated I don't have to struggle to turn pages or continuously ask for assistance.

Thank you to everyone at Aish.com for making it possible for myself and so many others to learn about being Jewish and grow in the most important part of our lives.

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Thank you so much for your encouraging words and for sharing your inspiring story.

God gives each of us a set of challenges. To those more capable of conquering difficulties, He gave bigger challenges. A challenge from God is a sign that He cares about us and has confidence in our ability to become great.

It sounds like you're doing great!

As for using the computer on Shabbat, that is prohibited. A foundation of Judaism is that we need to respect God's wishes, even if we think that doing otherwise is "for a good reason." Consider this story:

A king calls in his trusted minister and says: "I have an important mission for you to perform. Go to the neighboring kingdom and meet in the palace with their leaders. But remember one thing - under no circumstances must you remove your shirt during this meeting. Now go and do as I say."

The minister sets off on his merry way and soon arrives at the neighboring kingdom. There he heads straight for the palace where he meets with the King. In the midst of their discussion, he sees some of the king's officers pointing and laughing at him.

"Why are you laughing?" asks the visiting minister.

"Because we've never seen someone with such a pronounced hunchback as yourself," they say.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a hunchback!"

"Of course you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"We'll bet you one million dollars that you are!"

"Fine - I'll gladly take your bet."

"Okay, so take off your shirt and prove it."

At which point the minister remembers the parting words of the king... "under no circumstances must you remove your shirt during the meeting." Yet, the minister reasons, a million dollars would certainly bring added wealth to the king's coffers. I know I'm not a hunchback, so I'll surely win the bet. Of course, under these circumstances the king would approve...

The minister removes his shirt and proudly displays his perfect posture. With pride in his achievement, he holds out his hand, into which is placed a check for one million dollars.

The minister can barely contain his excitement. He quickly ends the meeting and runs back to give the wonderful news to his king. "I earned you a million dollars!" exclaims the minister. "It was easy. I only had to remove my shirt to prove that I wasn't a hunchback."

"You did what?!" shouts the king. "But I told you specifically not to remove your shirt. I trusted that you'd follow instructions, and so I bet the other king $10 million dollars that he couldn't get you to remove your shirt!"

The Torah tells us "Do not add or subtract from the mitzvahs." (Deut. 4:2) Jewish law is a precise metaphysical science. Consider a great work of art. Would you consider adding a few notes to a Bach fugue, or some brushstrokes to a Rembrandt portrait?!

Perfection, by definition, cannot be improved upon. Altering Torah law is an unacceptable implication that God is lacking.

The verse in Psalms 19:8 declares: "Torat Hashem Temimah" - the Torah of God is complete. For just as adding one wire to a transistor radio means it no longer can pick up reception, so too we mustn't tinker with Jewish law. The mitzvahs of God are perfect.

May the Almighty give you strength to continue your growth in Judaism.

In 1315, King Louis X of France called back the Jews who had been expelled a few decades earlier by King Louis IX. This marked a theme in Jewish-French life: expulsions and subsequent invitations to return. The French monarchy was trying to establish their land as the "new Jerusalem," and to fulfill this mission attempted several crusades to Israel. In 1615, King Louis XIII ordered that Christians were forbidden to speak with Jews, upon penalty of death. Eventually, in 1683, King Louis XIV expelled the Jews from the colony of Martinique.

Focus on what you do want. Make your goal explicit. “My goal is to increase my moments of joy.” This way, every single moment of joy is a successful moment.

Celebrate each moment of joy. Be grateful every time you experience joy.

Having this goal will place your attention on joy. Instead of feeling bad when you are not joyful, you will experience positive feelings about experiencing more joy.

Each moment of joy in your entire life is experienced one moment at a time. You can’t have more than one moment of joy in any given moment, but you can increase the number of joyful moments. How? By focusing on it.

There is no person on earth so righteous, who does only good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Reading the suggestions for ridding oneself of character defects, someone might say, "These are all very helpful for someone who has character defects, but I do not see anything about myself that is defective."

In the above-cited verse, Solomon states what we should all know: no one is perfect. People who cannot easily find imperfections within themselves must have a perception so grossly distorted that they may not even be aware of major defects. By analogy, if a person cannot hear anything, it is not that the whole world has become absolutely silent, but that he or she has lost all sense of hearing and may thus not be able to hear even the loudest thunder.

In his monumental work, Duties of the Heart, Rabbeinu Bachaye quotes a wise man who told his disciples, "If you do not find defects within yourself, I am afraid you have the greatest defect of all: vanity." In other words, people who see everything from an "I am great/right" perspective will of course believe that they do no wrong.

When people can see no faults in themselves, it is generally because they feel so inadequate that the awareness of any personal defects would be devastating. Ironically, vanity is a defense against low self-esteem. If we accept ourselves as fallible human beings and also have a sense of self-worth, we can become even better than we are.

Today I shall...

be aware that if I do not find things within myself to correct, it may be because I am threatened by such discoveries.

With stories and insights,
Rabbi Twerski's new book Twerski on Machzor makes Rosh Hashanah prayers more meaningful. Click here to order...